Thank you. That clears up the mystery quite a bit. Plus, it means that I should concentrate on getting copies of the *earlier* document if I'm trying to trace family lines. That's very helpful information.

Just to clarify: this would be the case in New York in the late nineteenth/twentieth century ...

Thanks for your reply! I was thinking it might be something like that: one civil ceremony, one church ceremony. But it seems to me that there wouldn't then be two different certificate numbers...??? Oh well. I hope seeing the documents themselves will solve the mystery!

Yes, there are indeed a lot of duplicate Italian names in the NYC records. And Annie and Angiolisa could be sisters who happened to marry men with the same name. But there was only one family of Damaturcos, so I know there weren't two Lucy Damaturcos marrying two Michael D'Alessios.

But I guess you ...

I am a newbie happily doing research on my Italian ancestors, who emigrated to the U.S. in the late 19th century, and quickly put down roots. I've found that the New York City online records are a wealth of information. However I appear to have found duplicate marriage records for two family members ...

OK! How cool is this!! I'm putting your email address into my address book. You'll be getting an email with pictures and an invitation to view my family tree.

Barbara

Maria - one more thing. I just dug up some old notes on the D'Alessio family and it does mention a sister, unnamed, who stayed in Montefalcone when the father (Joseph/Guiseppe) and brothers (Michael/Michele, Gus/Agostino, Tony/Antonio, and John/Giovanni) came to America. That must be your grandma.

Laura, thanks so much for all this research! Now I have to sit down and sort everything out - it will take a while, but I'm going to have a great time doing it!

Barbara

sorry - I'm a stickler for grammar LOL - I just saw I wrote "between my sister and I" - horrors! Please consider that officially changed to "between my sister and ME" !

Hi Maria. I did have an uncle, Gregory d'Alessio, who drew "These Women", a single-panel strip, for many years. He also was a serious artist who taught at the Art Students League in New York.(his wife was Terry Fellman, pen name Hilda Terry, who was instrumental in gaining recognition for women ...

Well, an awful lot of Italian immigrants lived on Hester Street, so the proximity of the addresses may not mean that much. But you're right, the other details (especially the "fruit seller" occupation!) are way too much of a coincidence. So maybe he did change from Rampino to Damaturco, or went by ...

That fultonhistory site looks great - I can foresee losing many a happy hour in it. Seeing the "Truble" surname rang a bell - I did have, but never met, relatives named Truble. I had already found the Lucy Dammaturco - Michaele D'Alessio record (my grandparents) but not the other Damaturcos.

As ...

Wow thanks Laura - those census records certainly look like they're my great-grandparents, except for the immigration date on the 1920 one, but I suppose that could have been a mistake. Why couldn't these census takers PRINT the names? I never would have thought "Demetrice" was Damaturco (though I ...

I'm trying to figure out if an old family story has any element of truth to it. My grandmother's maiden name was Damaturco. The story is that it was an invented name; her father, Gregorio, was the illegitimate son of a Turkish nobleman. The father either would not or could not give the child his ...

FYI, the Agostino D'Alessio in the May 1 2009 post was my great uncle Gus, who ran a dressmaking school and patented a dressmakers' drafting tool. The Michael who was his witness was my grandfather. I'm not familiar with any of the other D'Alessios mentioned in this thread, though.